


Wolves That Kiss, Humans That Bite

by CloudNineKitty



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animal Death, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, M/M, Not Werewolves, Omegaverse, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sexual Tension, Wolves, alpha! Erwin, eruri - Freeform, omega! levi, people that turn into wolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-21 14:25:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3695705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudNineKitty/pseuds/CloudNineKitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their species was divided by morals and personal preference. Each and every one of them came out of the womb human, but there was always the instinctual pull to embrace their inner wolf, their calling as an alpha, beta, omega. They all bore the calling, the tether within their core drawing them to a resolution, and some submitted to it and ran on all fours under the sun and moon and stars with wild abandon, and some slipped two feet into shoes before stepping out of their homes to go to school or work or shopping or on a date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not All Alphas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last thing this fandom needs is another omegaverse au based off these two. But I've taken an interest in the A/B/O dynamics, read a few eruri fics, did a lot of research, and decided I'd drop this piece of shit before I changed my mind. I'm already too deep in the poop.
> 
> I'm sorry in advanced.
> 
> Yes the chapter title is a not all men joke. Fight me somebody please

Weeds and dried winter grass yielded beneath them as they stampeded across the frozen forest floor. The trees were stripped of their leaves, providing the three no coverage from the waning gibbous moon at the center of the black sky. Moisture dried on their muzzles as they galloped ahead of the howling pack chasing them, only a handful of paces behind. Their pursuers were persistent.

“Big brother, we’ve been running for hours!” Isabel whimpered, but her legs did not falter, remaining obediently at the left of her leader’s haunches.

Farlan snarled savagely on his right. “We can’t keep this up all night. These assholes are practically feral, and they’ve already picked up on Isabel’s scent. They’re not going to stop until they-”

“Don’t finish that sentence.” Isabel snapped her jaws, green eyes glinting dangerously.

Farlan snuffled, but kept his sharp teeth clenched tight. She was terrified of what could happen to her, and Farlan was horrified by the idea that he wouldn’t be able to protect her. His ears flicked back, catching the thunder of paws behind them. “Levi, we need to think of a plan. If we change we can climb a tree, get off the ground. Isabela’s scent will diminish as a human.”

“We had to ditch our clothes on the spot. We’ll end up getting hypothermia if we change.” Levi said simply, lightning storm eyes hard and focused on winding through thick trees. The chase was hopeless, but he didn’t dare give Farlan or Isabel any doubt in their security.

In the back of his mind, Levi always knew that a pack of three omegas could be picked off easily, but through the years they had prevailed together as a strong team, outwitting alphas left and right, masking themselves as mere betas with black market suppressants. It was tricky working with suppressants, making sure to take them only when necessary (such as on a job) rather than abusing them and rendering themselves irrevocably sterile. They did enjoy heats, but at that moment in their lives, none of them wanted a mate, none wanted to produce a litter of pups. Perhaps one day, though, as Isabel and Farlan imagined it. Perhaps they’ll meet someone and wish to settle down with them. But that day remained in the distant future, and the thought alone made Levi sick to his stomach with antipathy. Until that day came, they would stick together as a tightly knit unit.

Together, always together, for so long that he could almost forget his years before he met Farlan, and, later, Isabel. They walked the streets of the ghetto on two legs, rarely indulging in their bestial forms unless it was needed for a job.

Humans knew about their kind, had for centuries, and they were treated the same as any other minority race – which wasn’t saying much considering the racial injustices that many normal humans suffered from day to day. There were even laws that banned hunting their kind, whether in the city or in the wild – it was comforting that the killing of their kind was considered murder.

Their species was divided by morals and personal preference. Each and every one of them came out of the womb human, but there was always the instinctual pull to embrace their inner wolf, their calling as an alpha, beta, omega. They all bore the calling, the tether within their core drawing them to a resolution, and some submitted to it and ran on all fours under the sun and moon and stars with wild abandon, and some slipped two feet into shoes before stepping out of their homes to go to school or work or shopping or on a date.

Levi, Farlan, and Isabel saw security within concrete roads and four walls. Their kind that remained upright scarcely dabbled in the dynamics of alpha and omega due to their bestial instinct and senses being capped up like a bottle in their human bodies. That didn’t mean that there weren’t any instances of an alpha reacting to an omega in heat if they happened to cross each other on the street, but it tended to be more civilized, unless one had the misfortune of crossing paths with a pack of wolves in human skin.

Hours prior to the relentless chase, Isabel had been walking ahead of Levi and Farlan with a skip in her step. Their latest job on the city docks had paid charitably, the elder man that employed them now and then always rewarded them with a little extra, aware of their situation. He was the one who had initially introduced them to the suppressants when Farlan had hit puberty, Levi following only a year later. They were not by any means close to the old man, but he was an important acquaintance that they returned to when jobs became limited.

The pack of three were on their way to a family-owned bistro that served unlimited breadsticks as an appetizer when they were quite suddenly swarmed by a pack of alphas. Farlan and Levi, being males, had ended their heat cycle days ago, but Isabel was on the last count of hers. Their healthy cycle called for them to ditch the suppressants for the next two to three heats, and they had been careful through their first, but clearly they hadn’t been careful enough.

One alpha had clutched her throat in a single large hand, fingers pressing into the scent gland on her neck with too much force for it to even register as pleasurable. She had snarled and scratched and snapped, in no way helpless like other omegas. The three had trained their bodies to reject the control alphas tried to exert on omegas with pheromones, and Isabel was fighting back flawlessly.

Levi had two down before the alpha struggling with Isabel even knew what was happening, and Farlan was already tacking his legs to knock him off balance. They were smart enough to know they couldn’t win a fight against so many, especially when more seemed to be joining them by the second.

He thought on his feet, and ordered Isabel and Farlan to change with him so they could use the advantage of their natural speed. Clothes stretched and tore as their bodies shifted, thickened and crouched, and together they took off for the outskirts of town, into the thick wooded area.

That was how they found themselves panting in exertion, obstinate alphas on their tails.

“Big bro--!” Isabel cried, falling behind two steps too many for Levi.

“Tch…” Levi’s muzzle pressed into a tight line. Even in their wolf forms, Isabel was exhausted and still in heat – this was weighing down on her mentally, to run when her instincts wanted her to stay, to roll over – and Farlan wasn’t fairing much better. Even Levi had to begrudgingly admit that his body was aching for a rest and long drink of water. They wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight, though they would damn well give it their all.

A howl, long and deep from the belly of what was most likely a large wolf, definitely one of their kind, rang out from up ahead, faintly due west. It sounded like a warning, informing the two packs on the run that they were entering someone’s, perhaps a clan’s, territory.

That…could be advantageous to their predicament. Or it could make things worse for them. If it was a lone wolf or a pack up ahead, they could seek their aid against the alpha pack. That, or the pack, or single wolf, could turn them away, or, even worse, provide support for the alphas.

“Farlan, send that wolf a distress call. Let them know we’re coming their way.” Levi instructed hastily. If the wolf did not want to get involved, he could alert them beforehand. They still had to time to change their itinerary.

Farlan hesitated. “Levi, that could end up being a really bad idea.”

“I’m aware, but our options are limited.”

“What if they’re also a pack of alphas?” Isabel added.

“Then we turn east and don’t look back.” Levi huffed. “Just do it, Farlan. Now.”

A heavy, solid beat passed. The temperature climbing and the barks of the wolves behind them growing closer, suspense tightened their bodies to the point of breaking. Finally, Farlan threw back his head and released a forlorn wail into the air, the sound carrying for miles. One of the wolves behind them yowled back mockingly, setting them on edge.

Other than the ridiculing and shouting at their heels, there was no response for several kilometers. Perhaps they truly did not want to get involved with their situation. Levi started debating their next plan of action. They should start changing their direction soon, head east where the wind will blow their scent north, hopefully convincing their pursuers to follow it.

Then, suddenly, like the first bud of spring, a howl met their ears. Permission to enter their grounds.

“Took the bastard long enough,” Farlan hissed, following Levi’s slight pivot towards the unseen wolf.

With a renewed sense of hope, the three found it in them to push faster, leaping over a fallen tree trunk with the grace of any natural born wolf. Their animal instincts were kicking in, their desire for survival, and so they ran. But so did the alphas.

“Levi, up ahead.” Farlan gulped.

“I see him.”

An enormous shaggy wolf with golden and bronzed fur stood on alert, tail down and head lowered, watching with crisp amber irises. He was perched on a protruding ledge at the top of an incline along the side of smooth, towering boulder, first watching the three openly as they trekked up the slope, then shifting his gaze to the pack of alphas, the hairs on the back of his neck rising along a growl. He too was an alpha, Levi noted, and he clearly didn’t appreciate the intrusion of the pack following Levi and his friends.

Levi followed the path between the ledge and the rock until they were circling behind the new alpha, Levi scrutinizing him from his peripheral and keeping himself between the Isabel and any threat.

Hepicked up on a presence from right above them, and he skidded to a halt in time to see another wolf launch himself off the boulder and land solidly next to the one on the ledge.

This one also had a golden coat, though the fur melded into a darker shade at the ends. “The others are on their way.” He was speaking, timbre low and imposing, to the amber-eyed alpha, but now that Levi was catching his breath, he could tell this new wolf was the dominating alpha, the leader, just as Levi was the representing leader to Isabel and Farlan.

Steel blue eyes that cut through moonlight settled in an ashy mask of hairs along his muzzle turned on them, and Levi felt the weight of the stare, the command this man, _this wolf_ , had over the land. “Are you hurt?”

There was absolutely no concern in his voice, and Levi’s lips pulled back to reveal sharp canines. “We’re fine.”

“Your friend is in heat.”

“Thanks for the update,” Levi snapped sarcastically. He didn’t sense a shift in the air from the alpha, not a single indication that he was interested in Isabel. Whatever the reason, it seemed to put Farlan at ease, and Levi trusted his judge of character. “We were wondering why these bastards were chasing us.”

The alpha huffed, pleased by Levi’s response, but he turned back to greet the pack hurdling towards them, their stampede slowing to a halt beneath the ledge. He stood beside the other wolf, just as large and strapping, and dipped his head to examine the group of fidgeting alphas.

Levi had heard of the power dynamic between alphas, that the weak sensed and respected the strong, but he had never witnessed the shriveling of a pack of alphas under the authority of two- or was it just the blue-eyed one that made them shrink back?

“Good evening, gentlemen.” The blue-eyed alpha began cordially. “Out for a late night run?”

“We don’t mean any harm,” One of the alphas, the one that had grabbed Isabel, said with a slight tremor in his voice. Not so tough when he was faced with someone his own size, obviously. “We’re just having a little fun with our omegas.”

“ _Your_ omegas?” The blue-eyed alpha glanced over his shoulder, giving Farlan, Levi, and Isabel each their own leveled gaze of acknowledgment. “Odd…they don’t seem to be mated.”

“Well we were getting to it, but the brats decided to play a little game of chase.”

Isabel and Farlan released twin snarls, and Levi hushed them silently.

“I don’t suppose you can tell me the names of these three omegas of yours?” The alpha continued to toy with them, his bushy tail lifting in just the slightest hint of amusement.

“Er,” The pack of alphas snuffled and sneered amongst themselves. The golden wolves on the ledge waited with practiced patience, not once letting their guard down. “That doesn’t matter! Just return them to us and we’ll leave ya alone, simple as that!”

A growl developed in Levi’s throat, but it never made its way out. His reflexes alerted him of multiple presences surrounding them, and he scanned the area discreetly as several wolves emerged from the trees and rocks as though ethereal spirits. There were about twenty of them, a healthy balance of alpha, beta, and omegas, and all on high alert.

“I don’t like bullies.” The blue-eyed alpha said after his clan – they obviously followed him with the way they were ready to charge on his command – had settled into position. He allowed the offending pack of alphas to weigh their chances of survival. “Wolves like you give alphas a bad name - make us seem like uncivilized brutes that take what we want without consideration.”

Levi scoffed. He’d never met an alpha that challenged that idea. As far as he was concerned, alphas were filthy pigs that didn’t deserve his attention.

“Omegas are to be treated equally, if not worshipped for the torment their bodies and minds are put through. Tonight you were planning to take advantage of an omega in heat, the weakest moments of their life, and I’m sure you and your pack of lunatics wouldn’t have stopped with her. I’m tempted to have you all ripped to shreds and served for dinner right here, right now.”

As if on cue, several snarls and wet snapping of jaws resonated through the forest, and Levi felt inclined to join them.

The alpha, the _true_ Alpha, allowed the harmony of threats to continue for several seconds before shifting in his stance, silencing his own pack without uttering a single word. “Leave this place. Go back to your domesticated lives of the city and burden the humans with your foolishness. Do not even dare think about returning here – it will be the last mistake you make.”

The growls erupted again like gunfire, this time accompanied by the whines and yelps of the felonious alpha pack as they turned tail and cantered back in the direction they came. One by one, the wolves quieted, sitting back on their haunches and licking their chops with pride.

“Your nose is impeccable as always, Mike.” The blue-eyed alpha hummed, turning away from the ledge and walking assuredly past Levi, Farlan, and Isabel. The rocky path curved around the boulder, then dipped down, and the alpha sat himself directly in front of it, just before the decline. “Now,” he said. “What to do with you three.”

It wasn’t a question, and Levi’s hairs raised, fully alert. They were surrounded, and if they even managed to escape, to run, they wouldn’t get far.

“Calm yourself, we mean you no harm. My name is Erwin Smith, and these grounds are where our kind can escape the city and fully enjoy our more primal abilities. What’s your name?”

“If you’re trying to escape the city, and your _humanity_ , why are you still using a surname?” Farlan barked.

Erwin regarded him with a gentle tilt of his head. He was nearly twice Levi’s size, but the way he moved was as graceful as a professional dancer. “I never said I wanted to escape my humanity. No one here rejects their human or their bestial form. We’re a group that embraces both sides of our heritage.”

Farlan clamped up beside Levi.

“Your names?”

“I’m Isabel!” She wagged her tail, ears perched high on her head despite the shaking weariness in her limbs.

Farlan snarled at her in admonishment, but he sniffed and shook out his fur. He felt no imminent danger, but Levi remained standing and alert. “Farlan.”

Crystal clear blue eyes watched Levi expectantly, but it was Farlan nudging him, shoulder to shoulder, that got him to consent. “Levi...”

“Well, if you three came from the city, then I’m sure you’re all exhausted. I’m rather impressed, actually. Even on four legs, we’re still a good five hour run from the outskirts.”

“Big brother is the fastest wolf ever! You should see him in action!” Isabel’s tail waved even faster despite Farlan’s disapproving glower.

“Is that so? I would love to see you in action.” Erwin said. “But for now, how about you three rest with us for the night? That pack of alphas might be camping in the woods tonight. I’d hate for all that chasing to amount to them getting exactly what they wanted.”

Levi growled, lowering his head. “And what’s to make us believe that you or one of your dogs won’t take advantage of Isabel’s situation? All you alphas are the same. You take, and take, and only live to shove your dicks in--”

A hefty paw slammed down on his head suddenly, pressing Levi’s muzzle into the rock painfully. He snarled, Isabel and Farlan leaping back and glowering at the wolf on top of him. By his smell, Levi could tell it was that alpha with the gold eyes, Mike, if Levi recalled correctly.

Erwin stood, and Levi shifted his gaze to the wolf, watching him lower his head so he filled Levi’s vision, no room for anything but him. “All the alphas here, including myself, pride ourselves in our ability to control our baser instincts in the presence of an omega in heat. We do not take, we do not force, and we certainly don’t shove our dicks inside every hole in sight. If you are to stay here, you will respect us just as equally as we respect you. You three are unmated omegas, which I have no doubt is on purpose. You’ve worked hard to remain that way, and for that you are strong and have my undying admiration. No one here has any intention of taking that away from you.”

“We get it, we get it! Just let him go!” Farlan barked, Isabel rowdy and shaking beside him.

“Mike.” Erwin said to the other alpha, and the paw was removed. “My offer still stands. You three are welcomed to spend the night with us.”

Levi stood slowly, eyeing Mike carefully before averting his gaze to Erwin. “Fine. But we’ll be gone by morning.”

“Understood.” That was clearly enough for Erwin. He stood straight and turned, heading down the slope behind the boulder.

Levi and the others remained rooted in place, backs straight and rigid and tails down. He had to remember to breathe; it was too quiet after such a tense atmosphere. He knew better than to antagonize an alpha on their turf, but he never submitted, never allowed his opponents the impression that he was weak, helpless. He probably seemed ungrateful to the pack that had witnessed his outburst, but if they had lived their lives like Levi, Farlan, and Isabel, they would understand that trust wasn’t easy to come by.

“Shall we?” Mike, possibly the largest wolf Levi had ever seen, muttered to them. He steered them down the path that stretched out as they entered a campsite that had obviously been assembled by humans.

There were tents - some store-bought, others made of heavy, weatherworn cloths - lined along one side as well as three fire pits, though they had already been extinguished for the night, or maybe when they had sensed that there were intruders on their land. A handmade cupboard rendered out of driftwood that was covered with a grey tarp stood tall opposite of the tents beside the mouth of a naturally formed cave that had a curtain of leaves hanging for privacy. Cans of beans were stacked in crates along another wall of the enclosure. There were only two entrances to the safe haven, the path they had entered on, and a broader one to the north that lead further into the woods. Levi could spot a lake several yards ahead, only because of the moonlight glimmering on the water’s surface.

Several wolves, possibly the biggest pack Levi had ever witnessed, stood about, watching the newcomers with interest. There was no distrust, no twisted grimaces at the sight of them, which was common with their human traits.

“Wow,” Farlan whispered, eyes darting every which direction. “This is incredible. You guys have started your own self-sustaining wolf society?”

“It’s not completely self-sustaining.” Mike said the most words Levi had heard from him since they arrived. “Sometimes we have to return to the city for a supplies run. We have a cabin further west of here, and a Jeep. Some of us here aren’t fully acclimated to the life of a wolf. They can’t handle raw meat, and some get sick easily and have to stay indoors.”

“If you’d like, you’re welcome to stay in the cabin tonight. It’s going to start snowing in the early morning.” Erwin said, having stopped at the edge of the path before the camp. “I don’t imagine a city wolf would-”

“We can handle a little snow, no problem!” Isabel beamed wolfishly, eyes squinting and tail wagging.

“Impressive.” Erwin complimented them with an incline of his head. “The tents are private to the people that brought them, but the cave is open. I suggest sticking close together for warmth. Are you hungry?”

Before Isabel could open her mouth, Levi bit out quickly, “No, we’re fine. We’ll just sleep so we can get out of your fur.”

Isabel whimpered, but did not object.

“Of course,” Erwin said, eyes piercing, perceptive. “I hope you don’t mind sharing.”

“We’ll be fine.” Levi huffed, took the lead towards the cave, sniffing the ground as he moved. Erwin’s scent was all over the place, as well as several other unnamed wolves. He wasn’t keen on sharing the space with the alpha, or any other wolf for that matter.

He glanced at Farlan as they entered, and the sandy-haired wolf nodded in understanding. They had to barricade Isabel from the rest of the wolves with their own bodies.

Inside the cave, there was already a few dozing wolves, one messy auburn furred wolf snoring particularly loud, clearly feeling secure in their little home with the way they were rolled on their back, belly exposed. A deep brown wolf lifted their head groggily to inspect the newcomers, but quickly lost interest and returned to sleeping. Something told Levi that these wolves were not unaccustomed to guests.

Levi scouted the cave quickly, but found no other exists besides the main entrance. That left him feeling cornered, even in the wide open space of the cavern. The three chose to settle along the leftmost wall, Farlan and Levi on each side of Isabel, and Levi closest to the mouth of the cave. It was cool inside, but not as crisp as the winter air outside, and a full body shudder wracked his bones. Levi really hated winter.

“Big brother…” Levi glanced at Isabel, could unquestionably feel the heat radiating off of her. “If I’m to mate with an alpha, I want it to be with someone like him.” She didn’t have to clarify who she was murmuring about.

Levi scoffed. “You’re tired and in heat. Get some sleep. We have to return to the city tomorrow.”

“Yeah…” She groaned, resting her head on Farlan’s back and exhaling deep and slow. “I’m sorry…we lost all that money because of me.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Isabel.” Farlan muttered, on the verge of sleep himself.

“We’ll earn it back.” Levi said simply, but the two were already drifting off, and it would take a genuine crisis to get them on their feet again.

They hadn’t had to run like that in their wolf forms before, but they never had a reason to either. They weren’t sent to chase vermin as a small pup, having to catch their own meal in the most feral methods because the man they lived with thought that he knew the superlative approach to teaching a kid the fundamentals of survival. The filth and acrid odors of the gutter still itched the inside of Levi’s nostrils, as though he would wake up and his escape from that world, from that crazed alpha, would have all been a dream.

Hours passed, and Levi awoke easily from his light dozing at the first hint of someone entering the cave. It was the two alphas, and they moved with quiet consideration for the sleeping forms in the cave. Mike didn’t spare the three a passing glance as he moved to the back of the cave, settling alongside the snoring wolf, his back to them.

Erwin, however, met Levi’s eyes in the dark as though waiting for Levi to say something. When nothing came, Erwin approached with vigilant steps. “Are you cold?”

“No.” Levi spat.

“You’re shivering.” His demeanor was unobtrusive, voice quiet, varying vastly from the controlled tone he had spoken in before. He wasn’t using his authority, and now that Levi thought about it, Erwin was possibly the first alpha Levi had ever met that didn’t try to control the three omegas with his overpowering pheromones.

“I’m fine.” Levi tried to force his body to still by clenching his muscles, but that only made it worse. He was lying directly in front of the draft inside the cave, but he wasn’t about to move and leave Isabel exposed.

“Suit yourself.” Erwin spoke softly before settling down in front of Levi, his intention to sleep obvious.

“What are you doing?”

Erwin spoke after a lengthy yawn. “Getting some sleep before the hunt tomorrow.”

“Not here you’re not.”

“Usually I sleep right where you and your friends are settled. Tonight I will sleep right here.” Erwin lowered his head, eyes sliding shut as if drawing the conversation to a close.

Levi rumbled deep in his throat. “You fucking alphas always-”

“Let me stop you there,” Erwin said evenly, though his eyes did not even crack open to look at Levi. “I’m not sleeping here because I am an alpha and I feel the need to assert my dominance over you. I am sleeping here because you are in my spot, and this is my home, therefore I have the irrefutable right to lie wherever I wish.”

Levi clamped his canines together, firm and snug. Erwin certainly had a point, as much as his audacity pissed Levi off to no end, and the break from the draft was certainly welcomed.

He settled back down, with the intention to get a few hours of what would most likely be a restless sleep, but an hour later he awoke to Erwin drawing closer to Levi’s space, much too close for his liking. Levi watched him suspiciously as Erwin sank down directly in front him, their body heat intermingling pleasurably.

He couldn’t find it in him to complain, not when the warmth and scent of the alpha was so unbearably appealing. He rested his chin atop Erwin’s crown, nose nestled in the crook of a golden ear so it wouldn’t rest on the freezing stone floor. Levi clung to consciousness like a child on the monkey bars, dangling above the darkness of sleep with a weak grip. He waited, listened, for Erwin’s breathing to even out, for his entire form to become limp, before he felt safe enough to close his own eyes.

He prayed for morning to come sooner rather than later. He wanted to be out of these woods and back in the city, far away from this rotten alpha and his pack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god this is a heart attack waiting to happen. This might be it. I might delete this in a week depending on how damning this is. I'm sorry. I have a weak disposition. I don't know if I can do this. Uhhhhhhhhhhh


	2. Hunting Instincts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Now remember,” Erwin bellowed, “Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they’re in the game."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick warning, there is an animal death in this chapter. I didn't get too graphic, but it's there.
> 
> Y'all...wow, y'all's feedback. I honestly didn't expect that kind of reaction. I also didn't expect to write a second chapter (well, to finish writing the second part I had left over from initially writing the first). Anyways, wow, thank you all for the responses, comments and kudos, and to the silent readers, thank you.
> 
> This is still nerve wracking to me, posting this, and even though I know exactly how this story is going to play out, I don't know if I can do this. The beginning is easy, but later, uhhhhhhhhhhhh. ~~I don't know if I can write knotting.~~
> 
> (In case you guys want visuals of the wolves that inspired Erwin, Mike, and Levi's wolf forms, you can find links at the end of the story.)
> 
> On an unrelated note, I really love the veterans of the Survey Corps.
> 
> Edit: I don't know how but I accidentally deleted the chapter from my phone. Sorry!

When Levi was a kid, he was forced to stand his ground against a mob of stray dogs in an unfamiliar neighborhood. He was six years old at the time, and the dogs were disgusting, flea ridden mutts of all kinds of foul flavors. They didn’t like a wolf on their territory – he hadn’t bothered anyone, but they still greeted his scent with distrust. The dogs had chased him down a dead-end alley, and his only option was to snap and swat back at them. They toyed with him, each one taking a turn to scuttle up to him, terrorize him, then skulk back to eye their handiwork at making him shiver.

They were smart, smarter than a pup, and knew how to hunt. Two distracted Levi, made him charge after them, while the other three chomped on his back and haunches. His yelps had drawn attention from the neighboring houses, and eventually, after his skin was bloody and torn, a young man chased the dogs away with a rake. He had tried to help Levi, but Levi didn’t want to be lifted up. He bit the man on the wrist. He hurt and he hated. He couldn’t change back into a human, too limp and confused.

Out of options, the man resorted to bringing Levi cans of tuna and bowl of water every morning before he left for classes or work, Levi didn’t care to know. When Levi could walk again, he left the neighborhood and never looked back. He never thanked the young man, never saw him again, and he preferred it that way. He didn’t care about debts back then. He was too young to. But now people expected it.

Nobody did something without expecting something else in return. Nobody.

Levi snorted unattractively when the warm pillow beneath his chin jostled him awake.

“What the fuck?” He groaned, glaring up at a golden wolf that stood starkly against the white winter background. The curtain of leaves was drawn back, revealing the layer of snow that had concealed the camp grounds during the dusky morning hours. It was almost blinding to look at now, the sun reflecting off the white surface unforgivingly.

“I didn’t mean to wake you.” The wolf said, turning around to press the bone of his muzzle against Levi’s cheek, like a mother urging its pup to return to sleep although it was a little too rough, too insistent, to be loving and maternal.

Levi shook him off, scowling at the unfamiliar wolf.  His nose was dripping wet and he immediately bowed his head to wipe at it with his paws, mucus clingy to his char black fur. He grimaced inwardly, and then looked at Isabel and Farlan still tucked together, breathing relaxed in their sleep.

Last night’s events returned to in a torrent of resentment and awareness. That pack of assholes had chased them far from home, and now Levi, Farlan, and Isabel were going to have to trudge through the snow on empty bellies and wearied limbs.

He turned his attention back to the alpha, Erwin Smith. Erwin was stretching his back, paws stretched out in front of him, yawning through his white muzzle. He stood upright, and Levi felt threatened due to his imposing stature while lying down, so he stood as well, shaking out his fur. At a cursory glance around the cavern, they were the only four left inside.

“No need to get up.” Erwin spoke quietly, mindful of Levi’s sleeping friends. “We’re going on a hunt. Mike picked up on the scent of a herd of elk nearby.”

“How close?” Levi asked, following Erwin out of the cave despite the alpha’s obvious reluctance.

“Four kilometers southeast. If you don’t mind waiting, we’ll return in a few hours with a late breakfast. You can cook the meat over a fire if blood doesn’t settle with you.”

“I’ll join you.” Levi said tenaciously, leaving no room to challenge his pronouncement. He knew how to snatch up his own meal with a quick snap of his jaws, though he never hunted in a pack before. “I won’t eat what I don’t help catch.”

“A city wolf that knows how to hunt?” Mike asked, revealing his presence only a couple meters away.

Levi’s lip curled back in distaste. “I wasn’t always a city wolf, you ignorant mongrel.”

“Enough,” Erwin interjected with an icy tone before things could become heated amid the alpha and omega. “Levi, we don’t just take anyone along for a hunt. We have a formation, roles that each person follows so no one gets hurt.”

“Then give me a role. I can follow orders, I’m not some brat.”

“Oh? How old are you?” Mike leaned his head down to sniff at the charcoal fur at the nape of Levi’s neck, setting the smaller wolf on edge. “He’s over twenty, that’s all I can gather,” he said to Erwin, then, to Levi, continued, “I’d place you somewhere around twenty-four, twenty-five. Am I getting close?”

“Sure, whatever.” Levi grumbled, turning his bright and stormy eyes on Erwin. He didn’t plea, never one for begging, but he certainly knew how to stare opponents down in order to stubbornly get his way. He could be intimidating, but he doubted that bullying would work on someone like Erwin.

“You’re sure you know how to hunt? We’re talking about a big animal. A single, fully developed elk needs three or four wolves to take it down.” Erwin watched him with sheer skepticism, which he had every reason to be. The largest game Levi had ever taken down was a sewer rat. As a human, though, he had wrestled men twice his size and three times his weight to surrender.

“I can be useful if you give me a chance.  It’s only for today. Consider my help as payback for last night.” Levi tilted his head in indication.

Erwin mirrored him. “You don’t need to pay us back.”

“Well I hate being indebted to assholes.” Levi sneered.

Erwin’s eyes smiled in amusement, but he became all business when Mike spoke up.

“You reek of humans and the city. You’ll scare off the herd the moment one catches wind of you.”

Erwin hummed in agreement, and Levi wondered how he could make such a human sound within a wolf body.

“Mike’s right. You need to mask your scent with the smell of the woods. There’s a small lake north of here. I doubt that it’s frozen over. Wash up quickly, then Mike will run you through the woods to cover your smell.” Erwin said with the same authority he possessed the night before. He didn’t ask for Mike’s permission to send him on a babysitting mission in the woods, but it was obvious the other alpha didn’t mind due to some unspoken respect between the two. If Levi had the blood of an alpha, he wasn’t sure how he’d handle being ordered around. Perhaps that was why the universe stuck him in the stinking tar pit with the rest of the omegas that dragged their feet.

Levi glanced behind him, back at the cave where the curtain had fallen shut. He turned a glare on Erwin, puffing his chest out. “All right, but if I get back and find out anything has happened to Isabel, or Farlan, I will rip your throat out with my teeth.”

“If I allow any harm to come their way in your absence, I will offer my throat to you with no objections.” Erwin was a smooth and dangerous bastard, Levi considered darkly.

The trek down to the lake was hushed and awkward, and not because every single wolf in the pack watched them curiously as Mike and Levi broke the calm snow through the camp. It wasn’t like Levi was their prisoner; he and the others could leave at any moment and no one would chase after them. There were no restrictions here; in this forest they were freer than they had ever been before. But he could feel Mike’s gaze boring into the back of his head, and it made Levi’s ears drop in annoyance. It wasn’t a hungry gaze, or one of malicious intent, but it was the gaze of an alpha.

Levi knew Mike was trying to figure him out; perhaps the fact that Levi had forced himself on their hunt did make him come off as distrustful. He certainly wouldn’t let just anyone work a job with him and Farlan and Isabel. They couldn’t afford a liability if anything were to go wrong, and Levi was certain that many things could go wrong during a hunt – it was a fact that only one out of ten hunts were successful, and Levi would kick himself in the head if this pack lost their target because of him. He was confident that he could be beneficial despite the odds.

The lake wasn’t frozen, but a thin layer of ice had congealed along the surface. Levi broke it with a featherlike tap, and the shock of frightfully freezing water made him jolt back and knock into Mike’s solid form.

“Don’t be a baby. Just roll in it and get out.” Mike barked in amusement.

Levi grit his teeth, taking a moment to mentally prepare himself, but he only had a handful of seconds before a heavy head shoved him forward into the water. “Ugh…” Levi’s coat shuddered visibly. Mud seeped between his digits. He flexed them, tried to dig his black claws into solid ground, but it only made his stomach churn as the gritty mud engulfed his paws. “Disgusting.”

“I don’t have all day.” Mike yawned, sitting back on his haunches. His golden thick, shaggy coat left him impervious to the winter wind crossing through the trees.

If Levi was in his human form he wouldn’t have hesitated to turn on the wolf and kick him square in the nose.

“Erwin’s watching. Hurry up.”

Levi wanted to turn back and confirm that, but Mike’s wide frame encompassed his visibility of the campsite. With a very canine sort of huff, he flopped down in the water, remaining right at the edge of the bank, and rolled through it once. He couldn’t stand fast enough, shaking and wet as he glared up at Mike. “I’m covered in mud…” He bit out through his chattering teeth. “This is _disgusting_.”

“Good. Your scent has already improved. Let’s go.” Mike took off for the woods, looping around the lake to head further north. He left a scent in his wake, the first time Levi was catching any kind of pheromone off those damn alphas, and it set his nerves alight with attentiveness. Mike was challenging him, egging him on like some animal herding a flock of sheep.

And damn it, it was working. It wasn’t like some mind-controlling scent that weaker alphas used on omegas. It was merely a shock to the senses to goad Levi into moving, like a racing horse hearing the starting gun at the gate. Running would be a welcome distraction from the crawling discomfort in his own skin.

Mike and Levi ended up running into the camp at top speed over half an hour later, Levi successfully stinking of mud, tree bark, sweat and snow. Mike had said not a single hint of the city could be found on him and reported the same to Erwin.

“In that case, the new formation is simple.” Erwin said calmly. “I rotated everyone back once. Mike, you’ll remain on my right. Levi, you will run on my left, and you will not fall more than five meters behind me.”

Levi scanned his surroundings, at the wolves that were milling leisurely about, minding their own business, and then the wolves that were noticeably standing close to Erwin, listening. He assumed they would also be running with them for the hunt.

Erwin introduced them as Dita, Luke, Gelgar, Lynne, and Henning, his usual hunting group. The formation was simple, a ring, with Erwin at the front.  He would lead them to the elk and start the chase, run directly at the herd to generate panic and make them scatter. Levi, Luke, Gelgar, and Lynne were the youngest and therefore would be the ones to take down the elk while Erwin, Mike, and Dita supervised. Henning would provide support if needed.

Levi wasn’t blind to the fact that he was the only omega present for the hunt, and he wondered if Erwin kept it that way on purpose; a hunting pack made of two alphas and five betas.

Before they left, Levi retreated back inside the cavern to check on Isabel and Farlan. Clearly well rested, Farlan lifted his head and blinked the sleep away from his clear grey eyes.

“Oh, damn, what time is it.” Farlan asked hoarsely. Out of the three of them, Farlan dabbled in his bestial form the least, never remaining in it for longer than two or three hours at a time. He had said once that the form made him feel sluggish and heavy, and it was obvious that his inner wolf enjoyed long naps and was ready to sleep through the winter months.

“Half past seven, almost eight, if I had to guess.” Levi answered snidely.

“Well damn.” Farlan yawned, long and wide. “I’ll wake up Isabel, and we can head-”

“Not yet. I’m going hunting.” Levi said, and Farlan quirked his head to one side. “With the pack.”

“What the hell Levi?” Farlan respired sharply.

“Isabel needs to eat before we head out. I refuse to let these people shelter us and feed us while I just lay around like a house pet.”

“You don’t need to run with them, though. We can catch something on our own.”

“Don’t be stupid. Anything small enough for three wolves to catch on their own is probably already hibernating at this point in winter.”

Isabel whimpered in her sleep, sensing Farlan’s distress, and squinted a green eye open at Levi. “What’s going on, Levi-bro? Why are you all gross smelling?”

“Levi’s going hunting with those alphas, apparently.” Farlan drawled in a tone he most certainly picked up from living with Levi for too long.

“That’s so cool! Can I come? I’ve never been hunting before!” Isabel’s eyes glittered like the snow beyond the curtain of leaves over the mouth of the cavern.

Levi couldn’t help the warmth he felt at Isabel’s enthusiasm. He never wanted to see the light within her heart snuffed out. “That’s exactly why you can’t come with us.”

Farlan scoffed. “Like you’ve been hunting.”

Levi did not humor them with a response. Instead, he told them about the pack’s formation for the run, described each wolf that would be joining them. He spoke low, and they remained huddled together in the nippy cave, the moisture of their words mingling.

“We can’t trust them, Levi. What if you get hurt out there and they just leave your body to be picked up by the next carnivore that crosses you path?” Farlan was worried, and the sentiment was sweet to Levi.

“We’re heading four kilometers southeast. You’ll know where to find me if anything happens.” Levi stood straight, taking a step back from his friends with the intention to head back outside; he had told Erwin he would only need two minutes. “I doubt they saved our hides last night with the intention to let me die in the wilderness.”

“No, he just saved us with the intention of sticking his cock down your throat.” Farlan muttered.

Levi turned piercing storm cloud eyes on Farlan, but Isabel snapped at him with less intensity and purpose than he himself intended. “Like Levi would let an alpha use him like that. Besides,” she continued unhelpfully, “, the alphas here are too kind for that.”

“Excuse me, Levi?” An unfamiliar wolf, a docile beta, poked her head between the curtain and rock wall. “Erwin is requesting you.”

“Hear that? He’s _requesting_ you.”

“Shut up.” Levi muttered lamely as he followed the wolf out. “You two make yourselves useful around here. I don’t want to owe these people anything.”

Isabel yipped cheerfully while Farlan watched him wordlessly.

Levi found Erwin waiting for him with his back to the camp at the southwestern entrance when Levi approached, steps crunching in the snow. Clouds had swaddled the sunlight up, giving the atmosphere an almost black and white hue, and Erwin stood brilliantly golden against the backdrop like some pious statue. Erwin turned, appearing too gleeful at Levi’s presence – not in his calculated stony visage, or intellectually blue eyes, but in the way the base of his tail twitched suspiciously. “When I said I wanted to see you in action last night, I didn’t expect you to be so willing.”

“That’s not why I’m doing this.” Levi assured him, in case there was any need for assurance. How the alpha conjured the idea that Levi wanted to show off his capabilities was beyond him.

“I know.” There was that damn twitch of his tail again. Levi wanted to bite his romp because he knew the alpha was doing it on purpose. “You’re quite noble, aren’t you?”

Levi’s canines itched to gnaw and gash.

“I’ve never met an omega quite like you.”

“Is there a point to all this?”

“Is there a point to you joining our hunt?”

“I already told you-

“That you don’t like being indebted, yes. But why should I trust you to join our hunt? I don’t know you beyond a first name and that you’re from the city. A hunt is a form of bonding within a pack as well as a display in rank. I can only understand your demand to join us as a challenge to my rank, or others’. It’s not as though you’ll be getting anything else out of this other than a meal. Isn’t that right, Levi?” That golden, fluffy tail twitched with mirth. “You’re certainly not planning on joining us…are you?”

“Do you like hearing yourself talk?” Levi snapped with a mouth full of venom. “You must be full to your ears with shit if you think I would want to be a part of this rat pack.”

“I see. Don’t mind me, then. I was just thinking aloud.” Erwin shook the snow off his haunches and stepped unexpectedly nimble through the snow, further along the upwards slope of the ingress. He began shouting over his shoulder at the camp, all ears flicking forward in attention. “All right, let’s move out!”

At Erwin’s call, several hailing howls filled the morning air with stunning harmony, a heartfelt sendoff to the wolves that would be dragging back a bloody corpse to eat. It was entirely uninspiring to Levi, though, glancing over his shoulder to check on the cave one last time, he could see Farlan watching from the mouth, Isabel next to him and hollering her own praises for her family member.

He nodded to them before trotting off with the line of hunters.

“Now remember,” Erwin bellowed to his pack when they were several yards away from the campground and the howls were mere memory. “Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they’re in the game. We are doing this for survival, and therefore we respect the life we take. Do not let it suffer for our selfish needs.”

Levi was certain Erwin was spewing philosophical bullshit because Levi was present, and he rolled his eyes at the attempt to flash leadership skills in his face. He couldn’t wait for the hunt to be over and done with – he wanted to get Isabel some real food and then start their hike toward town. He was already considering all the steps they would need to take in returning, the first being to scout out the way they came, keeping a nose out for those damn alphas. Then they would need to walk through the city in their forms, which wasn’t uncommon but it still drew human attention (sometimes humans were completely obtuse to the fact that they were talking to other people when they spoke in baby voices to wolf forms and requested to pet them).

Farlan and Levi would need to remain on high alert due to Isabel’s heat. Though it should be the last day, her scent could still attract alphas – or worse, some random stray dogs. And last, but not least, they would need to break into their own apartment seeing as all three of them had lost their keys along with their clothes and money. Those damn alphas had certainly inconvenienced them, and Levi was growing increasingly irritated just thinking about how long it would take to get their wallets back in the occurrence that they couldn’t sniff them out.

“Levi?” Luke, a long-legged wolf with straight chocolate-colored fur, stepped closer to get his attention.

Levi’s back drew rigid and he glared at the close proximity. “What?”

Taking the hint, Luke inched away, closer to his pack, and he dipped his head to communicate quietly to Levi. “Erwin was speaking to you…”

Levi snapped his head forward, narrowing his eyes to match the attentive gaze Erwin was training on him from over his broad shoulders. “What?”

“I need you focused, one hundred and ten percent. Be aware of the terrain, the smells carried in the wind, and, above all, your own scent.” Erwin’s voice was all authority, and Levi couldn’t help but wonder exactly what this guy did as a human before he ran off to the woods on four legs. He spoke like he was ex-military. “Mike and I can smell your frustration. Whatever you’re thinking about can wait. Exist only in this moment. If you can’t collaborate with the group, I will not hesitate to send you back to the camp.”

Levi couldn’t find it in him to bother with a response, so he begrudgingly conformed to Erwin’s orders instead. He calculated each step he took, listened for anything unusual, but he wasn’t sure what to expect. They were walking to preserve energy, but Levi’s legs itched to run, to carry him across the land with the freedom his wolf form offered.

As they grew closer to their target, the wind began to pick up, and Levi could effortlessly inhale the woodsy stench of wildlife, their targets. They were nearly there, and Erwin called him over.

“I take it you know where to bite?” Erwin asked as the other wolves spread out into the formation Erwin had planned.

Levi scoffed through his nose. “The back of the neck, yeah.” Mike snorted in amusement on the other side of Erwin. “Is that wrong?”

“That works for smaller animals, such as rabbits and foxes. However, you’ll never reach the back of a full grown elk’s neck, let alone snap it easily.” Erwin explained quietly, as though sparing Levi the embarrassment from the rest of the group. The sentiment was unnecessary.

“Okay, fine. Then where should I grab it?”

“The hind legs, on the thigh. The femoral artery is located in the thigh, and if bitten into and torn, will render the elk incapable of walking. It’s too deep to tear into upon the initial bite, but damaging the legs is the best bet.”

“What happened to respecting life and not letting it suffer?” Levi retorted.

“Unfortunately, life fights back and therefore we have to be cruel. The faster you can take it down, the less it will suffer.”

Erwin continued to give the rundown of hunting an elk until they reached the tree line that bordered an exposed valley. Twenty yards ahead stood a herd of elk shoveling through the snow with their noses, seeking the dead grass underneath.

“When they scatter, watch carefully.” Erwin whispered. The air around them was suddenly charged with the momentum of adrenaline coursing through each wolf. The betas stood, waited for Erwin’s commands with bated breath in the most subservient pose Levi had ever witnessed in their kind. He was speaking solely for Levi’s sake. “See how they move, match it. If one falters, jump on it.”

“Aye aye, Captain.” Levi grumbled.

Erwin didn’t look entertained one bit. “You have the honor of first charge, Levi.”

“Erwin, are you sure?” Dita, a wolf with a scraggly beard on his muzzle and a bald spot, cut in with apprehension.

Erwin gave him an encouraging, wolfish smile on thin black lips. “I’d really like to see what he’s capable of.”

He was challenging Levi, putting him on the spot to see what the omega would do. Surely, if Levi failed, he would be mocked the whole way back. He was a city wolf, they were expecting him to fuck up royally so that the others would have to step in and take over, kicking salt on his wounded ego.

Levi was not intimidated by failure. He never had been in the past, and he wasn’t about to choke on anxiety now, in front of this alpha.

“I can do it.” Levi confirmed, ignoring the look Erwin gave him.

“Outstanding.” He turned vivid blue eyes that could blend with the sky on his troupe. “Any objections?”

“None from me,” Mike offered verbally while everyone else remained silent.

The question seemed unnecessary from Levi’s point of view. Of course the betas weren’t going to object to their alpha’s decision, out of respect and loyalty. Every last one of them believed that Erwin would never let them down.

He wondered what that must be like, to have boundless blind faith in one man, one wolf.

“In that case,” Erwin’s body, the air around him, his eyes, it all shifted into a very animalistic posture, a hunting mindset that was exhibited visibly in his muscles and fur.

Levi watched the others find similar poses, and his own skin crawled and shuddered with the instinct to join them. He spread his hind legs in the snow, the balls of his paws and claws embedded themselves into the earth, and he dropped his tail low and straight, his body a vicious arrow in a taut bow.

“Onward.”

Joining the elks in the valley, Levi waited for the panic to bleed and infect the animals like a disease, eyes growing bulbous and large and festering ulcers, but, remarkably, they endured the imminent threat that approached at a casual trot. They seemed to notice the wolves one by one, heads lifting and turning to observe them, the cows remaining hunched while the bulls raised their antlers high in the air. You do not frighten us, they seemed to say in their stance, but Erwin didn’t appear bothered by the obduracy.

Levi hadn’t anticipated a standoff. This wouldn’t be his first, and he’d undoubtedly faced larger opponents than these elk, but knowing that they were wild and had baser instincts would make them more challenging to read.

He barely caught the telltale twitch in Erwin’s body before the alpha, and the others with him, began charging straight ahead at top speed when they were less than ten meters away. Levi bounded into action alongside them, recalling Erwin’s order to never fall more than five meters behind him. His blood thudded in his ears with each touch to the ground, the wolf born instinct to hunt welling in his chest and choking him.

His eyes were suddenly wide open.

Losing their nerve, the elk began to mewl and bray, heads thrown back as they galloped in the opposite direction of the wolves.

The pack divvied and spread through the scattering herd, Levi remaining at Erwin’s side upon his command. He couldn’t help but watch Erwin for a handful of seconds, unable to tear his focus away from the majestic beast as they dashed with uninhabited energy.

A scent pervaded his nostrils and he felt his lungs burn with an unmistakable desire that left his body unforgivingly tight. He immediately snuffled and shook his head to rid his thoughts, ridding the fog of alpha pheromones.

It made sense, now, why Erwin had been reluctant initially, and why his hunting pack pertained to only Mike and betas. No matter alpha or omega, when adrenaline surged through veins with trepidation or exhilaration they couldn’t keep their pheromones suppressed. Of course, a hunt would be the most appropriate time for such scents to release themselves into the air, and a combination of alpha and omega wolves were bound to become distracted.

Levi found himself salivating, panting through his mouth to taste the air the trailed off Erwin in plenty. No, he couldn’t allow himself to hook on to his impulses.

Erwin glanced at him, eyelids drawn wide and pupils blown to the point of engulfing fatal blue irises. Levi had never seen an alpha aroused in their wolf form before – he had avoided it like the plague. Nonetheless, it was satisfying to see that Erwin was feeling just as stimulated as Levi was.

“Levi, focus!” Erwin snapped, voice thick and dry.

It took everything in Levi not to laugh at the blatant hypocrisy. Erwin was struggling just as much as he was.

“Look for a target!” The alpha commanded.

Levi snapped frenzied grey eyes back to the herd, eliminating specific elk, such as a pregnant cow that he ran by without a second glance. He focused on a bull, one with dull antlers and hitch to its run. With Erwin’s permission, he pushed on ahead of the alpha, catching the rest of the pack’s attention.  Gelgar and Lynne joined him, on his right, Luke catching up a little slower on his left. They kept their distance, watched Levi and waiting to assist him.

 _The hind leg_ , Levi repeated to himself, forcing himself to focus. He could feel Erwin’s eyes on him, but he refused to let the damn alpha addle him with his pheromones.

He was a meter away from the elk when he launched himself at the rear right leg. There was nothing between the moment his paws left the ground and his fangs latched themselves into acrid meat and wiry hair, no sound, no smell, no heartbeat.

Everything came rushing back when a hoof connected to his belly, and he jerked his head back, tearing, snarling, pain and blood. The memory of when he was six and beaten returned with another kick, this time to his leg, the bull bucking and whinnying crossly. He bit harder, snarling back.

Levi was jostled free despite his best efforts. If he had hands, he’d have been more successful.

“Good go, Levi! That was awesome!” Lynne barked enthusiastically as she ran past him, smooth brown fur glistening under the sun that had returned from behind the clouds while Levi was otherwise preoccupied.

His body ached, but he wouldn’t let his first hunt end so quickly. He rolled back onto his legs and pushed ahead, the elk staggering now, and Levi counted the droplets of blood left in the snow in its way. He had certainly done a number on that leg, could still taste the blood in his mouth. It fueled his instincts into something savage and powerful.

On the outskirts of his vision, Levi could see Erwin and Mike shadowing the young wolves, not pushing as fast and hard, but still keeping up.

Luke made it to the elk before the rest and grabbed onto its left leg, only to be repeatedly kicked off each time he tried to reclaim it. Gelgar joined his efforts soon after.

Levi felt a surge of territorial rage at seeing the other wolves take his target, but he had to remind himself that they were working together. They were after a large elk, and Levi certainly couldn’t take it down alone. They each had a role to play, he reminded himself.

“Get back in there!” Erwin shouted, but Levi wasn’t sure who he was referring to.

He assumed himself, and so he threw himself deeper into the chase, closing in and biting onto the right thigh again as Luke and Gelgar synchronized in the left.

Knocked off balance, the bull fell over awkwardly, mewling in pain. Lynne and Henning sprinted at them at blinding speed, kicking up snow behind them, tails pointed to the sky with elation. A snarl ripped from Lynne’s throat as she clutched up the bull’s throat in her jaws, Henning skidding around the elk to get the back of the neck.

The elk whickered in exhaustion, but did not cease its bucking and struggling, forcing the young wolves to remain latched on with all their might.

Erwin joined them within moments, aiming directly at the throat and biting into a specific spot that had the elk wilting heavily, motionless. The wolves remained alert and biting into flesh, bodies taut, until Erwin took a step back and licked at his bloody chops.

Levi released the thigh, panting openly at the exertion. Chest full of thrill and power and adrenaline, he found himself looking to Erwin with a wagging tail, expecting – demanding - admiration for a job well done. Blue eyes turned to him and Levi felt himself shudder, waiting for--

Mike bumped into with his heavy body, knocking Levi off his paws successfully. He howled merrily at the clumsy display. “Good job, city wolf. I had you pegged all wrong.”

Levi scowled at him, returning to his legs. “I told you I could do it.”

“You did, and you certainly delivered.” Mike agreed, and then left him to give praises to the betas.

Luke and Gelgar shot him a couple of pointers and commendations, but Levi didn’t see the point of the advice since they were already done hunting.

Erwin didn’t approach him like he had hoped. He wondered why he had hoped he would. Sure, they had shared a moment of pure alpha and omega, but that was exactly what Levi detested and avoided regularly. He supposed the pheromones were still lingering, so space between them would do him some good.

The journey back to the camp took longer than when they left. The elk was heavy and bulky, and it took the two alphas along with Dita, Luke, and Henning to drag it through the woods. Initially Erwin and Mike had discussed changing into their human forms to carry it, which intrigued Levi and he inwardly hoped they would simply out of curiosity, but they decided against it seeing as they hadn’t brought clothes with them, and Levi refused to feel disappointed.

Upon their return, they were greeted with joyful yips and wagging tails.

“Thank god, I’m starving!” One wolf, the one Levi recognized from the cave that had been sleeping on their back, cheered.

“You’re always hungry, Hange.” Mike huffed.

“You should be thanking Levi, not god,” Erwin said teasingly, acknowledging the black wolf for the first time since the hunt. “He’s the one that lamed this big guy.”

Despite the conflicting emotions that had confused him about the alpha, Levi was able to brush off the praise with a narrow glare.

“Oh, you’re the wolf I saw this morning!” The one named Hange barked, leaping over the elk with less grace than Levi would have done himself. Their fur was a deep auburn, filthy, and their brown eyes seemed unusually large for a wolf. He could tell from their scent that they were a beta, but he had never met one with so much energy before. “Wow, your wolf if gorgeous! Hey, hey, open your mouth! Can I see your teeth?”

“Piss off.” Levi growled, turning away from her. His main focus now was to find Isabel and Farlan. He didn’t have to go far, the two approaching him first. Usually, after being separated for a bit of time, Isabel would welcome him back with a warm hug, but at seeing him she stopped in her tracks.

“Oh wow,” Farlan muttered, looking half humored, half appalled. “Levi, have you looked in a mirror?”

“Sorry, must have missed one while I was in the forest.” He bit out.

“Levi-bro, your face is covered in blood.” Isabel whispered as though to save him the embarrassment.

Now that he thought about it, his body was covered in filth, from blood to mud, and he felt his skin crawl beneath his fur. “Ugh. I need a shower.”

“Didn’t Mike say they had a cabin somewhere around here?” Farlan offered, looking far too pleased with himself. It wasn’t often that they could ogle Levi covered in dirt and unable to do a thing about it.

“Don’t be an ass, Farlan.” Isabel snapped.

Levi scoffed and turned his back to his own pack, seeking out an alpha. Erwin was giving instructions to certain wolves to start a fire for cooking, the wolves retreating into tents and coming back out as humans fully dressed for the winter weather. Levi marveled at the prospect for only a minute before he caught Erwin’s attention.

“I need a shower. Now.” Levi demanded.

“Wouldn’t you care to eat first-”

“Now.” Levi repeated.

The cabin wasn’t far from the camp at all, only a couple kilometers, and it was nicer than Levi had suspected. It was a more modern log cabin, with polished smooth, red wood on the exterior and a deep green roof covered in solar panels. It had an enclosed garage where he assumed they kept the Jeep they had mentioned, and a small firewood house in the back. Someone in the pack had quite a bit of money on their hands.

Levi was too busy examining the surrounding area of the cabin that he had to bite back a yelp of surprise when he turned to face forward again to see a very tall and very naked man standing in front of the door.

He couldn’t keep his eyes from raking over the built, pale backside that was presented to him. Erwin Smith’s arms alone should be registered as a deadly weapon seeing as he was packed full of bulk, only confirming Levi’s theory that Erwin was ex-military. It also urged Levi to be more careful around him. Erwin wasn’t some meathead gym junky. He was intelligent as well as physically sturdy, which meant Levi had to be smarter and stronger to win against him if he tried anything.

A part of him knew Erwin was a man he could trust, but the fight-or-flight part of Levi left him on edge. He remained in his wolf form since he would have a better advantage against Erwin that way.

Erwin kept his body tucked together as he punched in a code on a numerical keypad above the door handle. A light flashed green along with a click, and he swung the door open into the dimly lit cabin. He walked in first, speaking to Levi as he moved about the cabin. “Hold on, let me turn on some lights and the heater. No one’s been here for a month, so everything has been shut off.”

Levi took a cautious step inside, inhaling deeply, but all he could smell was vacuumed rugs, Windex, pine air fresheners, a hint of Mike, and Erwin; a whole lot of Erwin. Erwin walking barefoot, Erwin in snow boots, Erwin returning from a hike in the spring and shiny with sweat, Erwin placing wild flowers in a vase of water – he could practically taste all of this and more on his palate, and he sneezed in distaste. He could safely assume from the constant stench of Erwin that he owned the cabin.

That only arose more questions, but Levi didn’t care to ask. He closed the door behind him with his head and waited for Erwin to return from the back of the cabin. Lights flickered on, as did the whir of a heater, and Erwin emerged from a utility closet at the back of a modern kitchen decked out with stainless steel appliances and warm wood. His nose, cheeks, jaw and mouth were painted in red gore, and his hair was in disarray, giving him a macabre presence.

Levi kept his eyes above Erwin’s waist.

“This way to the bathroom.” Erwin motioned for Levi to follow him down the hall. He clearly had no qualms about his nudity, Levi assuming that living in a pack like Erwin’s there were bound to be moments that people had to shift without any cover. They stopped in the middle of a hallway, at a guest bathroom, and Erwin turned on the light. “Shampoo, conditioner, soap, it should all be there. Careful of the water, it’s going to come out scalding for the first thirty seconds, and then it’ll be safe.”

“Got it.” Levi grunted, moving past Erwin and into the small bathroom. It was long, with a closet directly at the entrance, then a sink with a sizable counter, a clean, white ceramic toilet, and finally the bathtub along the back wall. The walls were a pale blue that reminded Levi of winter skies, and the shower curtain was stripes colored in several hues of blue and purple. It didn’t exactly match the decorum of the bathroom, but he supposed that if Erwin Smith had to have one weakness, interior decorating wasn’t the worst.

“Since it is winter, the hot water won’t last much longer than twenty minutes, so keep that in mind.”

“I wasn’t planning on taking a three hour shower.” Levi retorted.

“I was simply informing you. I’ll be in the kitchen. Shout if you need me.”

“Doubt I will.”

Erwin shut the door and Levi listened for his footsteps before he calmed himself enough to change. It felt surreal, being a human again – he couldn’t remember the last time he’d remained a wolf for such an extensive period, not since he was a kid. He flexed his fingers and toes, glancing down his body and groaning aloud at the mud, blood, and dried grass clinging to his skin. Leaning in close to the mirror, he examined his face.

His eyes seemed hollow with the blood painting his visage like a demonic entity. Animalistic. He didn't look the same, he didn't look tired or apathetic or suspicious. He was alive, suddenly, with eyes clear and sharp, and it felt unbelievably satisfying - or it would, if he didn't itch and squirm within his own skin at the germs that embedded themselves in his skin.

He curled his lips back, revealing pink teeth. Even his tongue was red with the stuff. He quickly rinsed out his mouth, spitting pink water into the sink before heading to the shower.

The shower only lasted ten minutes before it turned icy despite what Erwin had said, but Levi was nearly agreeably dirt free by that point. He sniffed the grey towel on the rack before using it to dry off, then wrapped it around his waist. He stepped into the hallway and looked towards the opposite end they had come. A door was ajar, revealing a dark room, but there weren’t any signs of life inside. He headed to the kitchen with his towel and damp hair, finding Erwin scrubbing his arms and face at the kitchen sink; he was wearing a pair of faded jeans now.

“That’s not going to do you much good,” Levi said, alerting the alpha of his presence. Their instincts were dulled in their human forms. “You might as well take a shower, too. Though I don’t think there’s any hot water left.”

“In that case, I’ll wait, thanks.” Erwin gave him a friendly smile, flashing straight, white human teeth.

With the blood cleared away from his neck and mouth, Levi could see that Erwin was a young man, or at least he couldn’t be older than forty. His eyes appeared even brighter as a human, and he had impeccably groomed hair and nails. Levi was quite certain that Erwin walked on two legs more often than he initially let on, especially if his scent was all over the cabin.

“I would like to speak to you while we have our privacy, if you don’t mind?” Erwin extended his arm towards a solid wood kitchen table. Levi took the chair closest to him, and Erwin sat on the opposite side, out of arms reach. “You were incredible today.”

Levi immediately quelled the pride that tried to rise in his chest, his omega reacting to alpha praise. “Sure.”

A warm smile never left Erwin’s lips. “I’ve already said this, but I never met an omega like you. As you’ve already seen, we don’t take omegas on hunts with us. Scents can become uncontrollable and confusing for both alpha and omega, but you handled yourself fairly well. I apologize if you felt any sort of threat from my pheromones. It was not my intention.”

Levi felt his cheeks warm and he placed his left elbow on the table, pressed his face into his palm. “No, it was…fine. I didn’t feel threatened.”

“I’m aware, but I still apologize. I allowed myself to get carried away, and I reacted to you as well.”

“Nothing happened, so it’s fine.” Levi bit out in annoyance. He didn’t want to be discussing that part of the hunt. It wasn’t a distant memory, it had never left him - the scent and feeling had clung to him like a leech, sucking his blood into an unsought craving. His other hand curled into a fist and applied painful pressure between his legs, toes crimping painfully. “Let’s just drop it.”

Erwin watched him as though he knew exactly what kind of torment Levi’s body was putting him through, and he sympathized. “Of course.” He stood and retrieved two mugs from a cupboard. “I don’t own a hairdryer, but I also wouldn’t suggest changing back with wet hair in this weather. How about I make us some tea while we wait?”

Levi had to bite back a moan of appreciation. He hadn’t been able to indulge in a mug of tea in months. “Sure.”

They sat in silence, Levi wiping away droplets of water that fell from his hair, Erwin setting a kettle to boil on the stove while he ground natural tea leaves with a clean white mortar and pestle. The kitchen smelled heavenly, herbal and rich, and Levi allowed himself to relax as he watched Erwin’s back muscles ripple beneath his skin.

It was too bizarre, for him to feel at home in such a strange and unfamiliar place, alone with an alpha of all creatures. They drank tea together with companionable small talk, mostly about how Levi felt about hunting with a pack, and when Levi’s hair was dry enough, they stood on the porch of the cabin, completely nude, and changed back together.

Levi couldn’t figure Erwin out – the man was a puzzle of misshapen and conflicting pieces – but if there was one thing he was growing increasingly sure about, it was that this alpha, and the pack he lead, were people that Levi, Farlan, and Isabel could trust. Or, perhaps, that was the brainwash of running with the pack getting to him.

He wasn’t entirely sure, but he remained ready to return to the city. At least there he could think clearer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Levi's wolf](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/40/8a/16/408a166906baa003b2e7b6000afb4033.jpg)   
>  [Erwin's wolf](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51tUPhZAZGL._SX355_.jpg)   
>  [Mike's wolf](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a7/85/c3/a785c3aff0a5e627c80a69c3eb1fb0e1--red-wolves-wildlife-nature.jpg)
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> And yes, Levi did have a small boner in the kitchen.


	3. Fever Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veins swelled atop Erwin’s hand as he squeezed and stroked, hand soaked. They broke apart to pant in each other’s faces, the water vapor in their breath congealing and dissolving, eyes gleaming beneath the moon like Christmas lights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long wait! I restarted this chapter over and over again until I was finally satisfied with it. Changed the rating from mature to explicit.
> 
> Also I'm proud to announce that where I was once apprehensive about writing omegaverse, I now no longer care.
> 
> Before you get into the chapter (or after, whichever you prefer), I made a playlist for the fic, which you can find [here](http://8tracks.com/razzldazzl/wolves-that-kiss-don-t-tell-about-it). Hope you like it, and I'm always looking for new music so if you have any suggestions that fit the theme, by all means!
> 
> Also- more wolf pics at the end of the chapter!

_ “Alpha…” Isabel had never suffered the throbbing buried between her legs like this. Before, a burden, but tonight, beneath this burly blond man, she felt no shame in parting her thighs for heavy hands and searching lips. A surge of delight, starting from her mound and spiraling, looping, curling through every organ on its way to her esophagus that released a filthy sound most unheard of. _

_ “You smell positively irresistible.” The alpha spoke through a face full of warm flesh, the vibrations sending pleasurable shivers through thin, pale legs. _

_ Warm, wet, alleviating strokes of a broad tongue had Isabel squirming and humping swollen red lips. She imagined blond hair, blue eyes, the given traits; the rest, nondescript bone structure and attributes. It didn’t matter what he looked like, her alpha’s indisputable strong will, passion for righteousness, and composure made him desirable enough. _

_ She stilled and moaned through a small hiccup of an orgasm, and he kissed her with a dark promise of many more to come. She kicked her leg out at a particular suck on her left breast, knocking something but uncaring. _

Levi snarled in his rude awakening. His body was a roasting chicken turning on a spit, sweating in his coat and mind, mouth chalky from wheezing against the grimy dirt floor, now humid with his own breath. He itched inside his skin to rub against something, anything, for the satisfaction of friction, but he didn’t move; remained rooted, refusing to succumb to the heat that was entrapping him.

A claw caught on a pebble. Smokey grey eyes snapped open as the minute rock skittered across the cave’s floor. Levi did not move a centimeter, not even to breathe. He watched, he waited, in the unfamiliar atmosphere as wolfish bodies moved through the dark.

Erwin and Mike were taking sluggish steps towards the mouth of the cave, muzzles gaping around soundless panting. Levi could smell their arousal, as heavy as their winter fur. Their departure from the cave didn’t alleviate the pheromones, but it allowed him the privacy he needed at the moment, and Levi pushed himself up to look at Isabel.

Upon her insistence (a pitiful whimpering display of watery green eyes and lowered ears), they had stayed with the pack for the last night of her heat. She confessed that she felt safer waiting it out at the camp than in the city, but Levi would blame that on the bonding she had somehow accomplished in the time Levi was absent for the hunt. She had excitedly relayed on Levi everything she and Farlan had learned about outdoor living; an enthusiasm Levi didn’t understand considering they never expressed a desire to go camping. All three of them had agreed that the city was their safest bet, that the woods left them open to attack from wild animals, elemental dangers, and, worst of all, alphas. A single night spent sleeping in a cave shouldn’t have changed that notion.

After their casual conversing in the cabin, Erwin kept an innocuous distance from Levi, perhaps respecting his distaste in alphas or regarding that they were both experiencing lingering effects of the hunt. Whatever the reason, Levi found it easy to blend in with the community of omegas, helping them shovel snow with his muzzle and hind legs to clear paths about the grounds. They attempted eating raw meat from the elk, but Farlan had a weak stomach as both human and wolf.

Levi could still see the grimace of pain on the sandy blond wolf’s visage even in the dark of the cave. Isabel, on the other hand, had an expression of shameless ecstasy.

Her tongue wet her chops repeatedly, and she squirmed where she lay, evidently enjoying the dream she was having. The scent of her heat was suffocating, it was no wonder Mike and Erwin had to excuse themselves. Usually heat dreams didn’t occur at the end of the cycle, but something must have triggered her into having one.

She mewled in her sleep, writhing lewdly. A name, slurred and filthy, slipped across her tongue, causing Levi to pause. Never before had an alpha centered their thoughts, and now the bastard was everywhere, creeping between every crack until he conquered their defenses.

A rational part of him assured Levi this had nothing to do with the leading alpha, that Isabel had expressed interest in him the night before, and now her heat was warping her attraction into a feverish dream. The obstinate part of Levi’s instinct sent him slinking out of the cave on a single minded mission to confront a certain alpha and blow off some steam.

Erwin insisted on being nothing like the city wolves, slaves to their nature, beasts that raped and defiled and took whatever they wanted from what they considered lesser to their existence. They claimed to live the city life, but it was ‘civilization’ that had driven Farlan, Isabel, and Levi running for their lives into the woods. Humanity by itself was a cesspit of hypocritical morals, racism, greed, and lust – and to mix the base instinct of wolves with such a complex network, it could only go one way or another. Levi would do everything in his power to protect Isabel and Farlan from the dark side of that coin.

Erwin still sat precariously on the edge of the fence; an alpha that demanded respect for omega and beta alike. What drove him to play the golden boy scout? Did men and women alike throw themselves at his feet, swooning at every baritone syllable that dripped from his lips like honey milk? And did he hope to achieve that with Levi, or worse, his family?

If so, he had had the chance right there in the cave. A little whispered suggestion into her sleeping ear and Isabel would have followed him out of the cave in a lucid illusion of sleep. Instead he had left, taking the only other alpha in the cave with him, without uttering a word or second glance to Isabel.

Levi needed to know what he was playing at, or he could end up killing the bastard with his cynicism.

Mike and Erwin were nowhere to be found in the camp, but their scent lagged behind them like a bread crumb trail. They had headed out into the woods, presumably to avoid their baser predispositions igniting and setting upon Isabel. As he tread further from the cave, the pure, icy wooden air cleansed his palate like the best exfoliation, and his thoughts reduced to thorough examinations of the situation. All in all, no one was at fault; such things were a natural occurrence for their kind. Levi had his own personal dealings with the side effects of heat, every omega did.

Now, if Mike or Erwin had decided to take advantage of the situation, under the guise of natural order, there would be a completely different matter on hand. Levi supposed he should count his blessings, instead of pursuing this, but he wanted answers.

The forest was a stretch of inky black trees on fresh, glistening pages of snow, clean and crisp, freshly pressed with enormous paw prints. Levi hated the cold, but the heat of an omega was unbearable, especially in his current form. Being a wolf was filthy, hair everywhere, sweat that clung for days, lifting a leg to pee on a tree, rolling in dirt and leaves, running through mud.

If the ground wasn’t covered in snow, Levi would change to two legs and weave his way through bare saplings and pale tree trunks. He bore the itch of disgust, and continued following the tracks of the two alphas.

What were they doing, slinking off so far from camp? Levi had walked a good twenty-something meters now, and Isabel’s scent had washed away with a freezing wind several steps back. Admittedly, Mike had a sensitive nose, so he probably needed more space than usual from such an enriching scent. Needy and palpable, thick on the tongue, hunger in the belly, arousal a whipping cane demanding submission. Panting, salivating, foggy…

Levi snapped his muzzle shut at the realization of his thoughts spiraling out of control. Without even noticing it, he had stepped into a whole new kind of heat, a lower pitch than an omega’s – an alpha’s rut; a putrid stench, but nonetheless intoxicating, with a bitter, dismal aftertaste. So those sonsabitches grabbed an unsuspecting omega, or two, and decided to take their rut out on them? Despicable.

With prickling abhorrence on his neck, he breathed, shallow, and marched on to stop their repugnant act, canines bared to tear flesh from bone if necessary.

Only, as he came upon them, he found no other animals in sight, no one from the camp, nothing wild, save for a perverse red feathered owl that was watching them with avid interest from a tree a few meters away. All Levi discovered was two enormous, in height and muscle, naked grown men grinding against each other, breathless and sweating despite the negative temperature, their faces warped in pained pleasure or pleasured pain. And if Levi had not been given the opportunity to meet Erwin face to face on two legs, he’d have doubts about their identities.

Erwin leaned his broad back against an even broader tree, his large hands fisting both his and Mike’s cocks almost expertly – they had been doing this a while, judging by how they knew exactly where to touch each other. Levi grew warm in his own coat yet again, his wolfish body determined to betray him, and he immediately fell the winter floor, sure to be soundless, and let the ice cool his core. He buried his nose in the snow to breathe unhindered by the two alphas’ musk.

The scene unfolded as though from a script, a passion riddled one. Mike cupped the back of Erwin’s neck, stroked up to his hair where he scratched and kneaded before he fisted silky blond strands in an overpowering fist, and hauled Erwin forward for a slow, slavering kiss coupled with moans and mutters. Veins swelled atop Erwin’s hand as he squeezed and stroked, pre-cum soaking and slicking. They broke apart to pant in each other’s faces, the water vapor in their breath congealing and dissolving, eyes gleaming beneath the moon like Christmas lights.

Without incitement, Erwin lurched forward and took a large chunk of Mike’s neck between his teeth, the larger man howling and shooting forcefully into Erwin’s hand like a damn geyser. Levi had never witnessed so much cum in his life, and he refrained from making an outward expression of repulsion.

Mike sagged, spent, and made a slow effort to his knees, still leaking profusely into the snow. He wasn’t near done with his orgasm when he took Erwin into his mouth, his fist at the base – and at that point, Levi’s head was reeling with one simple question: why was _ he _ sitting there watching all of this?

Mike didn’t have to work over Erwin long, the leading alpha alerting the other when he was at his limit, and Mike jerked the organ until it spasmed and released.

It felt like several minutes went by before both alphas shook the remaining fluids from their cocks, and then bent over, landing on all fours and shaking out their fur. Mike immediately lifted his hind leg to begin cleaning, while Erwin turned his back on the other wolf and searched for a dried shrub to relieve his bladder.

“Fuck, it’s cold.” Mike’s wolf snuffled.

“We can stay in the cabin tonight.” Erwin offered upon his return.

That explained the hint of Mike that Levi had picked up.

For a moment he panicked that they would notice the third set of footprints that had followed them, but they took off trotting in the opposite direction from where they came. Levi sighed into the snow, suddenly unsure of why he had followed the alphas out there in the first place, or why he had remained when he’d clearly recognized what they were doing. He blinked, stood and shook the ice off of him, before leaping into a sprint back to the camp. He didn’t want to be there when their orgasm riddled brains picked up on his scent, which Mike surely would.

Somehow, he found himself with more questions than he’d started with.

Entering the camp felt foreign, like he was intruding on the peace and quiet with his muddled thoughts. Did these wolves know that their top two alphas were together? Had everyone known all along, and that was why there was no distrust, no discomfort to have omegas out in the open? Levi had never heard of two alphas doing…that. It wasn’t impossible, he supposed. But in this dog eats dog world, it was a divergence from the norm. Two omega couldn’t possibly satisfy each other for long, they stuck together for camaraderie. Betas easily found someone, another beta, or an alpha or omega. But two alphas together…

It wasn’t so baffling, if he really thought about it. At least, not when it came to Erwin. He thought that omegas walked on water, deserved absolute reverence. Perhaps he was with another alpha for that exact reason, to adhere to his respect for omega. It wasn’t as if Erwin or Mike were immune to the scent of an omega, tonight was a clear demonstration of that – not to mention Erwin and Levi reacting to one another during the hunt. He was nowhere near disappointed, but he had been so certain that Erwin was interested…

It didn’t matter in the end. Come morning, Levi, Isabel, and Farlan would be on their way back to the city, back to their routine, and they’d never breathe a word of their time in the woods.

The sun reared its blaring rays sooner rather than later, and Erwin and Mike never returned to the cave. Isabel woke with a guilty look while Farlan curled in on himself for another handful of shut eye. Levi debated asking about her dream, but preferred not to have that discussion – nothing had come of it, and she couldn’t control her subconscious.

Levi ate breakfast with the others, a small helping of leftover elk and canned beans – what he wouldn’t give to be back in the apartment with a cup of coffee and a bagel, but he wouldn’t complain. Erwin and Mike didn’t show their faces at all during the communal breakfast, and Levi wondered if he would leave without ever seeing them.

Isabel looked oblivious to the effect she had had on the others in the cave, smiling to herself as she gnawed on a chunk of meat next to a young brown-furred beta that was chirping away about the different textures of meat. At least she would be ready for the trek back.

“Levi, right?”

He turned to the filthy auburn wolf that he had given the cold shoulder after the hunt the day before - Mike had called them Hange. “What of it?”

They barked in laughter, tail wagging at a blinding speed. “You really are from the city! The difference in personality of a city wolf and a wild one is so stark. Did you know that wolves that grow up in the city tend to have slower reflexes than ones that grew up wild?”

What kind of crap were they spewing so early in the morning?

“I’m Hange, by the way. I was a wildlife biologist – well, technically, I still am. I moved out here to live with the pack to get closer to my studies. I’ve been working on a theory about how wolf people came to exist.” They rambled on, ignorant to Levi’s apathy.

He couldn’t give two shits about why they existed, only determined to survive with this shitty inconvenient genepool. No matter how quiet he remained, he couldn’t seem to shake the wolf’s incessant rambling – they even followed him to a tree outside the camp where he relieved himself out of their line of vision.

“-and it couldn’t be bestiality, which is what a lot of human scientists like to assume. It’s scary that they jump right to that conclusion. The thing is, a dog’s sperm doesn’t have the same membranes as a human egg, and vice versa, which is why dogs and cats aren’t spitting out mutated babies together. It’s impossible, honestly. It could be  _ some kind _ of mutation, like maybe pure werewolf transformations, but of course that’s just scary stories we used to tell kids, but maybe our ancestors inspired that story, who knows! Don’t get me wrong, mutation is common. Like you, your black fur doesn’t occur naturally in wolves, but your human genes dominated that trait.”

Levi groaned deep in his throat and headed back to the campsite, Hange conveying more arguable ideas about how their species came to be. He stopped in his tracks when he spotted Erwin sitting with Isabel and Farlan, nodding to something Farlan was saying. Isabel noticed Levi within seconds and began yipping happily for Levi to join them.

Last night was still fresh in Levi’s senses, burning at his nostrils and roasting within his chest. He refused to allow the scene to play in his mind on a loop, but the smell of the rut had permeated his nostrils permanently. They were distinguishable between each alpha, Erwin’s a piney smell that was far more beckoning than Mike’s. Or was Levi prejudiced…? But why, because of the hunt?

That was...well, ridiculous, but not unheard of. Experiencing the same pheromones twice within twelve hours would surely give Levi a preference. Besides, Erwin as a human was far more handsome than Mike. That scraggly mustache was a deal breaker.

Not that he would ever let one of them lay a paw on him.

“Levi, good morning.” Erwin greeted in his cordial tone. Levi definitely saw the base of his tail twitch - a suppressed wag.

“Levi! Erwin was giving us tips on how to run as a real pack!” Isabel’s ears perked in her eagerness.

He eyeballed Erwin with a dubious glance. Isabel and Farlan had been running with Levi for years, and they had made it this far. He certainly didn’t need advice from some alpha with a superiority complex.

“I don’t mean to overstep, Levi. I merely thought that some pointers would help you avoid situations like this in the future.” Erwin offered with a dip of his head.

Levi huffed through his snout. “Oh yeah? Like what?”

“As wolves, it is our instinct to survive in the wilderness, so even if there are only three of you, you can harmonize your howls to make it sound like a pack of five or more. It’ll scare off anyone approaching.”

He cussed under his breath. That wasn’t a bad idea - if he could sync up with Farlan and Isabel perfectly, they would avoid getting caught up by bigger groups, even in the city. Obstinately, he sneered, “We’ll have to try it out sometime.”

“I’d be happy to teach you guys before you head out!” Hange barked with that ardent attitude of theirs. Levi had all but forgotten they were behind him.

Erwin stood, his thick, golden fur shivering with every muscle he moved. “Then I’ll leave you in Hange’s capable hands.”

Expressive blue eyes rolled to the side, catching Levi’s with the bare hint of an insightful gleam. Levi felt the blood in his wolf’s body run cold. Did Erwin know? Was he angry? Amused? Why wouldn’t he just say something?

“Levi, you coming?” Farlan called from where he was leaving with Hange.

His paws remained rooted upon the snow covered earth, watching the large alpha saunter off in the opposite direction. There was no use running his brain ragged with questions he would probably never know the answers to. They were leaving today, returning to their city life, and they would never see this pack or that damn alpha ever again…

Levi scoffed, and turned to follow his companions and the slobbering brown wolf outside the camp, reconvening on the elevated path where they had first met Erwin and Mike. Hange dropped down on their hind legs and panted in their eagerness, tongue lolling out the side of their mouth. “The key to harmonizing your howls is using different tones. Isabel, give your highest pitched howl; Levi, you follow a tone under that; and then Farlan, give us a deep one.”

Isabel was all too keen, tail wagging ferociously before it tucked between her legs as she took in a full belly of oxygen and expelled it upwards, towards the canopy of trees. Levi followed as instructed, voice hitching at the magnetic pull in his chest as he joined the fray. Farlan followed, and as soon as his wailing began, Levi changed his to a deeper one. Together, the three omegas shifted in pitches, creating the illusion of a pack of seven each time they rejoined with a new howl.

He carried another note, protracted and bellowing, the sound ringing in his ears, coursing through his veins, oozing from his pores, and making his fur stand on end. His heart pounded against his rib cage, blooming with the momentum of the harmony.

Levi never howled; aside from changing into his wolf form when it was necessary, he preferred keeping two feet on the cement and treasured the invention known as indoor plumbing. These past two days was an oddity in his usually human life. And yet, in this moment, head thrown back and claws digging into frozen soil, he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

Feeling the shifting air in the bosk, smelling the crisp foliage and branches weighed down by fresh snowfall, tasting the venison on his tongue - it all made his chest swell with something unfounded. It hurt, leaving him sore and burning.

Silence rang around him, and his howl trickled down to nothing. He blinked once, slowly, at his pack.

“Dude…” Farlan sniffed.

“What.” Levi snapped.

“Nothing...that was just intense.” He muttered, Isabel nodding in agreement.

Hange looked on with a bitten back grin, thin muzzle shivering from their restraint.

“...What?” Levi looked between the three wolves.

“Did that feel good?” Hange was beyond themselves, but were trying to be polite or something. It was making Levi uneasy.

He didn't answer. Couldn't. It had been an experience,  _ intense _ as Farlan had put it. He didn't have a name for it, a definitive emotion, good, bad,  _ confusing _ . Instead, he said, “Let’s head home now.”

Levi made sure their farewells were kept brief, knowing that Isabel could be quite the social butterfly when she felt comfortable, and she managed to get comfortable within the camp in a matter of hours. Farlan thanked Hange, the alphas, and a few others for their hospitality while Levi waited on the outskirts of camp. 

He didn’t want to - couldn’t - spend another moment in this camp. His wolf was growing used to its freedom, basking in the chase of elks and blood on his tongue and the scents that clung to his fur. The human part of Levi was screaming for control, for fingers and clothes and his futon back at the apartment.

Odd, years under those conditions seemed so trivial after the past two days.

The hike back home took them half the day, but the dark of the city was welcomed when they had to huddle up in the nude while Levi picked the lock to their apartment. Isabel called dibs on the first shower, and Levi was the last to get cleaned up. Farlan ran out to get them some food with money from their reserve in the kitchen; they’d have to check at the police station to see if anyone had turned in their wallets and phones.

When they went to bed that night, Levi stretched out on his futon in his corner of the living room. His firm pillow that he had carried with him from place to place was like a heavenly bed of the softest foam compared to the cold stone of the cave, and he drifted off as soon as his eyes closed out the street light filtering through the blinds.

_ Weeds and dried winter grass yielded beneath them as calloused paws stampeded across the frozen forest floor, kicking up snow in their wake. The trees were stripped of their leaves, providing no coverage from the glaring blue light of the full moon at the center of the blackened sky. Moisture dripped from his muzzle as he galloped after the golden wolf ahead of him, unseen but wanted. His need was persistent. _

_ A deep, luring howl lit up the sky with bursts of fire, warming Levi to the core. His tail and ears stood straight up, and he only pushed his legs to carry him faster through the woods. He had to catch up to that man, that wolf, he was so close, so close, and when he had him he would _

“Oh!” Isabel chirped, and Levi blinked awake, eyes adjusting the the light quickly. 

He glanced at Isabel, felt the way his eyes rolled in his head, and he knew what had surprised her. He sat up on his futon, shaking out his fur and ears to wake up.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you. Just didn’t expect to find you in wolf form.” She giggled and stirred her coffee. “Hurry up and change so we can all eat breakfast.”

Levi watched her leave, then looked down at himself. He hadn’t changed in his sleep since he was a child...just what the hell was happening?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Farlan's wolf](http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/63769d449665e19622fb97d7145c2582/http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj193/werewolflvr/wolf-1.jpg)   
>  [Isabel's wolf](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fv155xbm02knx.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fpics%2Fcomments%2F54cirs%2Fthe_beautiful_and_critically_endangered_red_wolf%2F&docid=eo53c6uGxVFiKM&tbnid=kyde4kQYQIbIWM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjI-bT8tZ7WAhUs0YMKHSYbCJsQMwjxASgDMAM..i&w=1600&h=1281&bih=758&biw=1536&q=red%20wolf&ved=0ahUKEwjI-bT8tZ7WAhUs0YMKHSYbCJsQMwjxASgDMAM&iact=mrc&uact=8)   
>  [Hange's wolf](https://howlingforjustice.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/canis_lupus.jpg)


End file.
